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can't discover my new USB printer

randomgeek

Posted 31 July 2005 - 06:31 PM

randomgeek

Member

Member

19 posts

Hi Guys,

I have an old machine with an Aopen AX6BC mother board and a PII 350 processor running Windows 2K. This system has 2 USB ports which don't seem to work. The system devices show a USB hub device operating normally.

A while ago I tried to get an optical mouse working on one of the ports but that didn't work. And just yesterday I bought a USB printer that can't get seen during printer software installation.

randomgeek

Posted 01 August 2005 - 08:03 PM

randomgeek

Member

Topic Starter

Member

19 posts

Hi thanks for looking into this for me. I'll answer best I can below:

I have 2 USB ports coming off my motherboard.
I don't have any USB expansion card.
I am running Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4
I Am not running XP on this machine (the one in my Geeks to Go user profile is a different machine)
BIOS shows Legacy USB support
In device manager, I have 2 controllers:
USB Root Hub
and Intel82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller

I ran the usbready.exe utility and it says my system is fully USB ready.
Go figure. It just doesn't work I guess.

randomgeek

Posted 02 August 2005 - 06:01 AM

randomgeek

Member

Topic Starter

Member

19 posts

<sigh>

PIBSAK

So ok the issue is resolved.

Just for fun I plugged in my USB mouse again...it didn't used to work when I had win 98. It sure works now.
So then I thought what if USB cables aren't all the same? (I was using a cable from a cable modem because the printer didn't come with one). Iwent and picked up my scanner's cable and presto...it all works. I reinstalled the printer and I'm done. The diff in cables was the scanner device end was twice as long as the modem device end...so what I was using just wasn't going deep enough.

For USB Devices to function:
(1) - You need to load drivers for USB & set your BIOS & verify USB Controllers are recognized in DEVICE MANAGER. . . 1st
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(2) - Power down & re-start
(3) - Load USB Drivers for Device - (Do not plug in device)
(4) - Power Down - Now connect device - & turn on
(5) - Power ON - - - -Plug & Play should: "find new hardware"
(6) - follow instructions...You may have to load software at same time you load USB Driver for device???

But PLUG & PLAY requires that you load Device USB Driver 1st & do a restart . . . .before plugging in device.

USB Mouse needs LEGACY USB MOUSE SUPPORT to be [ENABLED]
A USB MOUSE needs BIOS USB control to work in DOS & some Dianostics Utilities.. .

Also it is not good to run a USB Mouse WITH a PS2 Keyboard..??. .
Usually causes intermittent problems. . .(WIN 2000 XP I know for sure!)

Check your USB Mouse to see if it is a "HYBRID". . .Look on the bottom and see if it says: . . "USB and PS2 Compatabile". . . . if it does>>It is a HYBRID MOUSE. . . .You should have a USB / TO / PS2 ADAPTER that came with the Mouse Package. . . USE THE ADAPTER & CONNECT TO MOUSE PS2 PORT. . . .[DISABLE] LEGACY USB MOUSE SUPPORT in BIOS. . . .You may have to LOAD a different driver - THE HYBRID has circuitry that can self configure to USB or PS2. . . .THAT IS WHAT MAKES IT A HYBRID. . .